Let's talk about the piano, ladies and gentlemen. It's so ubiquitous and flexible that it plays a part in almost every area of contemporary music. With its huge dynamic range, rhythmic and percussive capability, chordal and harmonic facility, and melodic expressivity—no other instrument can play as many roles, both solo and within an ensemble. Today, we can enhance its flexibility by modifying the sound of the piano—spatially expanding it with electronics, making it more ethereal; or perversely, celebrating action noise, making it more physical. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, ambient, atmospheric, and contemplative music for the piano, on a program called "INDISPENSABLE." Music is by LUDOVICO EINAUDI, TOM EATON, KEVIN KELLER, MASAKO, JOSHUA VAN TASSEL, PAUL CANTELON & LILI HAYDN, GABRÍEL ÓLAFS, and BEN LUKAS BOYSEN. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

Out on the western range, there's places where the deep prairie meets the desert at the end of the line. Places where the tough get going and the outlaws go to hide: where the land's eroded, the water's scarce, the weather's bad, the nights are dangerous, and everything you see...is a survivor. It's called "The Badlands." On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a program inspired by this hard and beautiful environment...called BADLANDS. Music is by DANIEL LANOIS, ERIC TINGSTAD, CARL WEINGARTEN, BRUCE KAPHAN, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, JAPANCAKES and DAVID TORN. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

This time we return to a series we began in 2015, and continued in 2020 and 2021. Yes, spacefans, it’s another transmission in our seminal electronic music series—"COSMIC ELECTRONIC 4." It’s seminal because we’ve been obsessed with the genre since 1973, but didn’t get around to naming a program after it ‘til decades later. As I said then, “The analog synthesizer allowed musicians to design entirely new sounds and created a new kind of spatial imagery that evoked the vastness of cosmic space. It could be cold and dark, warm and romantic, dramatic or contemplative—and it came to be called "spacemusic." On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a deep space journey to newly discovered star fields, thanks to the awesome JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE — on a program called "COSMIC ELECTRONIC 4." Music is by MARTIN STÜRTZER, STARTERRA, DREAMSTATE LOGIC, JIM OTTAWAY, COUSIN SILAS & MICHAEL BRÜCKNER, KEVIN BRAHENY FORTUNE, and KLAUS SCHULZE. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

AFRICA...an enormous continent, with a vast and diverse array of music. In Sub-Saharan Africa it’s mostly upbeat, polyrhythmic, and joyful, designed to accompany dancing and celebration. There’s also an extensive traditional folk music, with songs for every occasion, and historic religious and ceremonial music. It’s different—so it’s not surprising that it took us more than six years to produce our first program exploring the slower, quieter side of African music in 1989. The most obvious difference when compared to contemporary ambient from Western countries is the emotional quality. Where Western ambient is often cool and trance-inducing, African ambient makes a joyful noise, and remains committed to traditional acoustic instruments, like the 21 string harp called the kora, the metallic thumb piano called the mbira, the West African lute called the ngoni, and a wide array of drums and percussion. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, the seductive polyrhythms and sweet modal harmonies of Sub-Saharan Africa, on a program called "AFRICAN DELIGHT." Music is by AYUB OGADA, SONA JOBARTEH, BETWEEN, STEPHAN MICUS, DANIEL BERKMAN, WILL RIDENOUR & BETSY BEVAN, and SAMITE. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

The trance rhythms of the Middle East, Asia and Africa are steady, continuous, and slowly changing. Rather than driving you forward like the ubiquitous military march beats of western rock, they patiently insinuate themselves on your nervous system, steady the breath, slow the pulse, and ultimately...transform your awareness. Psychologists call it "entrainment" or "dissociation." The rest of us call it enchantment, rapture, ecstasy, or euphoria. It's all part of the wide world of trance. Trance rhythms have been used by priests and shamans in non-western cultures for centuries. More recently they've been rediscovered by western musicians seeking an alternative to conventional beats, used by so-called "minimalist" classical composers, and adopted by experimental musicians around the world for their psychoactive power and popular appeal. Trance is also a major genre of Electronic Dance Music, with mind-altering beats heard on dance floors around the world. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we insinuate ourselves on your nervous system—in a good way—with soft summer trance music, on a program called INNER RHYTHMS. Music is by JAMES HOOD, BYRON METCALF, LOREN NERELL, DREAM JUNGLE, and DON LI. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

What we call Ambient Music today dates from 1978, when English musician and producer BRIAN ENO released “AMBIENT 1 : MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS.” In his companion “Ambient Manifesto,” Eno gave a name and a purpose to an undefined creative area of minimalist, electronic, and experimental art music, and turned it into a contemporary genre. Writers searching for the roots of the Ambient sensibility traced its origins to prehistoric Eastern religious traditions that promoted ecstatic states through stillness, meditation, psychedelic and mystical experience. The contemporary influence of European electronic music was more technical, and focused on creating complex soundscapes and defining auditory space. Today, Ambient music creates a sense of place that ranges from merely calming and serene, to profoundly numinous and transcendent, and supports an accessible form of spirituality for a post-secular age. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, we look back at ambient music from its early maturity in the 1980s, and now—on a program called “AMBIENT EVOLUTION.” Music is by JOHANNES SCHMOELLING, PETER BAUMANN, DON ROBERTSON, STATE AZURE, CHRISTIAN HALTEN and MICHAEL STEARNS, BLUE CHIP ORCHESTRA, PETER SEILER, and BRIAN ENO. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

The desert...a place where sun, heat, wind and sand conspire to make life a challenge for even the strongest organisms. For humans, it's where civilization ends, and we confront the earth at its most elemental — vast space, rugged terrain, extreme conditions, contemplative solitude, and often, eerie silence. It's no wonder the desert continues to be a major source of inspiration for ambient musicians. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, another superheated journey in dehydrated spaces called DESERT REALMS." Music is by STEVE ROACH & BYRON METCALF, RUDY ADRIAN, BRUNO SANFILIPPO & MAX CORBACHO, and MARTIN, KLAMPT & ROWND. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

It’s been just over a year since our last program on the classical and devotional music of India. With a history going back over three thousand years, it has complex, deeply entrenched traditions, yet has adapted surprisingly well to contemporary genres and technologies. A case in point is the ongoing embrace of electronic music by musicians from India and the demanding study of Indian music by western electronic musicians. It's even more remarkable because Indian classical music is drone-based and monophonic—no harmony, no chords—and microtonal, with 22 notes to the octave versus 12 in western music. On this transmission of Hearts of Space — contemporary, traditional, and devotional music of India, on a program called INDIA NAVIGATION 3. Music is by ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, STEVE GORN, MANOSE & TY BURHOE, ALAM KHAN, and MANISH VYAS. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]